Question For Southern DUers

[THUNDER HANDS]

How is the history of the civil war taught in the South, and do you suppose it's taught any differently than it is up north?

(ie, it's slightly more sympathetic to the confederacy)

Any southern DUers know, or at least remember how it was taught when they were in school?

[carolinayellowdog]

1. Back in the 60s

the Virginia history textbooks were outrageous: all but a handful of slaves were perfectly happy with their lot in life, until that evil Yankee woman HB Stowe stirred up all that trouble with her lies. R.E. Lee didn't want to go to war but Lincoln left him no choice. Yadda, yadda. But those textbooks were thrown out decades ago as was, later, the racist state song. You'd need parents of currently enrolled children (or history teachers) to tell you about bias in present day textbooks.

[TN al]

2. I am not from here but...

... my kids go to school here. I remember being in my son's 4th grade classroom while the teacher went over the history lesson of the day. What piqued my interest was the use of the pronoun "we" when referring to the confederacy. At dinner that day I recounted an anecdote from my army days. Due to a leg injury I had a profile to wear running shoes instead of boots for a while. My CO saw me in the shoes and asked "What would Jeb say?" He had a picture of Jeb Stuart in his office and was impressed that I knew who he was. I responded that I didnt know what Jeb would say but that Bill Sherman was ok with it, Sherman wore shoes instead of boots in uniform, and since I was in Sherman's army not Stuart's it was his opinion that counted. I felt that it put the "we" in perspective and accurately taught my son, and earlier my CO, who "we" were.

[burythehatchet]

3. ah dude?...it's not over yet.